Matthew E. White has been one of the true musical sensations of 2012 so far. The Richmond, VA native has not only garnered praise from all quarters for his debut album Big Inner, a gumbo of 70s soul, rock, jazz, blues and roots influences (oh, and Randy Newman), but his live shows have already achieved cult status. BigInner, released this year on the Hometapes imprint, is a lush, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production that pairs White with a choir, strings, keyboards, baritone sax, and more, and White has proven equally willing to go for the big arrangements in the live setting, convenience and good sense be damned.

It is appropriate, then, that as one of the top artists to emerge from the southeastern U.S. this year, White garnered a prime slot at what I would argue has already risen to be the king of southeastern music festivals, the Hopscotch Music Festival. For this very special performance in Raleigh’s Fletcher Opera Theater, White showed up with a 30-person ensemble including many of the very musical ingredients that make Big Inner so special. From the mellow Otis Redding-style groove of “One of These Days” to the psychedelic jams on “Hot Toddies”, this over one hour show (longer than Big Inner‘s 40 minutes by a solid amount) was as varied and remarkable as Big Inner itself. Before wrapping up, White took special time to thank festival co-founder Grayson Currin, who booked this mammoth ensemble long before White became the toast of the blogosphere. As with so many things about this festival, this night with Matthew E. White was something Hopscotch got right.

This recording, by NC taper Larry Tucker, is a matrix mix of a soundboard feed and American-made Peluso microphones. While it suffers from some of the same room acoustics issues as the Lambchop recording, it is quite good. As a bonus, Hometapes and White’s management have also permitted us to release our recording of “Brazos” that nyctaper recorded at Mercury Lounge.

Note: All of the material on this site is offered with artist permission, free to fans, at our expense. The only thing we ask is that you download the material directly from this site, rather than re-posting the direct links or the files on other sites without our permission. Please respect our request.

DISCLAIMER and LEGAL NOTICE

nyctaper.com is a live music blog that offers a new paradigm of music distribution on the web. The recordings are offered for free on this site as are the music posts, reviews and links to artist sites. All recordings are posted with artist permission or artists with an existing pro-taping policy.

All recordings and original content posted on this site are @nyctaper.com as live recordings pursuant to 17 U.S.C. Section 106, et. seq. Redistribution of nyctaper recordings without consent of nyctaper.com is strictly prohibited.

nyctaper.com hereby waives all copyright claims to any and all recordings posted on this site to THE PERFORMERS ONLY. If any artist posted on this site requests that recordings be removed, those recordings will be removed forthwith.